Kolkata Police lays hour-long siege to CBI offices

KOLKATA: A huge police force virtually lay siege to the CGO complex in Salt Lake and Nizam Palace in central Kolkata — where Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) offices are located — at 7.15pm on Sunday.


The stand-off between

Kolkata Police

and CBI for over an hour led to a situation where CBI sought an urgent appointment with Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. Frantic calls were made to the CBI headquarters in Delhi, following which armed CRPF personnel were deployed at the

CBI offices

a few minutes after the siege was withdrawn at 8.32pm, as dramatically as they were imposed.

The police had gathered at the two sites minutes after a team of CBI officers reached the official residence of Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar at Loudon Street, apparently to “examine him in connection to Ponzi firm cases”. Later in the evening, CRPF and CISF personnel were sent to guard the CBI offices.

At the CGO Complex, armed CRPF personnel took charge of the security of CBI offices on the ground and second floors. “We have been asked to guard the offices on an emergency basis,” one of them said.

Even though it was a Sunday, CBI offices were functional with officers and a skeletal staff. According to a security guard at the CGO Complex, panic ran high among those present in the offices with police imposing a strict order of no entry and exit.

Officials made calls to the headquarters in Delhi to alert them of the situation. “The stand-off was unprecedented. We have faced public ire many times during investigations, but this kind of a stand-off taking a sharp political turn is rare,” said an officer.

Around 7pm, the force deployed to control the Sunday crowd at Kolkata International Book Fair at Central Park was asked to put up a barricade at the CBI offices in CGO Complex. “By 7.15pm, we were in place. We had strict orders not to allow entry or exit from these offices,” said a Bidhannagar City Police personnel.

A similar scene unfolded at Nizam Palace, which houses a host of central government offices and officers’ quarters. Senior CBI officers of the rank of special director have offices here. “Around 7.12pm, a force from Lalbazar virtually lay siege to the complex. They said no one was allowed to enter or exit,” a source said.

The stand-off brought was similar to the one in Andhra Pradesh, where the government issued a notification withdrawing consent accorded to CBI officers to carry out search operations without informing it first. The notification said the general consent accorded by the state to Delhi Special Police Establishment stand withdrawn.